Pinterest is the latest social network to take the world by storm. While social network skeptics will call it just another site, the fact is that it is different from the other countless similar sites. What is more, you can use Pinterest to successfully promote your business.
What Is Pinterest and How It Is Different from Other Social Networks?
Pinterest defines itself as “an online pinboard”. It's a place where you pin (mostly) images and other stuff you find interesting and share them with the world. Similarly to the other social networks, you follow people and have followers. Also, other users can repin your pins, thus spreading the word.
While there are no limits on the type of stuff you can pin, Pinterest is not suitable for all kinds of brands. It works best if your product/service can be presented in a visual way (i.e. clothes, furniture, etc.) and in this case the publicity you and your products get on Pinterest could do miracles for you.
Tips to Make the Most Out of Pinterest for the Benefit of Your Business
In order to make the most out of Pinterest rather than waste your time or even worse - do damage to your brand, you need to know how to use it. Here are some tips to help you with this.
1 Be Active on Pinterest
As any social network, Pinterest is a huge thief of time. You need to spend time on it daily in order to be able to follow what others are pinning, to comment on it, etc. You can't expect benefits from Pinterest, if you are not active on it on a daily basis.
2 Use High Quality Images
Pinterest is about visual appeal. This is why you can't go with crappy images taken with your 10 year old mobile. You need images with professional quality because otherwise you will be doing your brand more harm than good. This doesn't necessarily mean you need to hire a professional photographer - with the right equipment and some skills you can create the images on your own.
3 Post in Series
When you keep your followers interested, they develop the habit of visiting your board every now and then. One trick to keep your users interested is to post in series. In other words, if you have 10 images you want to post, don't post them all at once but post them one a day in the course of 10 days, stating that this is image 1 of 10, 2 of 10, etc.
4 Add a Pin-It Button to Your Site
If you want to get repins, you need to make it easier for users to do it. One way of doing it is by adding a Pin-It button to your site. Check what Pin-It buttons are available for your platform (i.e. WordPress, Joomla, etc.), pick one of them, put it on a visible place on your site and begin counting your pins/repins.
5 Post Interesting Stuff Not Limited to Your Products/Services Only
People are hardly coming to your board to see your products, so post other interesting pictures that will attract users (or keep them, if you already managed to attract them). This helps to attract new users to your account because when they see a cool pic somewhere on Pinterest, chances are they will visit your profile and have a look at your products there. If you post only images of your products, you won't be able to attract random visitors that much.
6 Write Interesting and Meaningful Descriptions
Photos are the bait but even the most unambiguous photo will benefit from a good description. Additionally, a good description will help your images rank better with search engines, which means more traffic for you. Be concise and precise in your descriptions and your users will certainly appreciate it.
7 Use Hashtags (Wisely) and Categorize Your Boards
When you use hashtags and when you categorize your pins, this makes them look more organized and they will be easier to find. On the other hand, don't use hashtags at large - i.e. add a hashtag only if you really need it because otherwise your pins will look spammy and users will skip them.
8 Follow Users with Large Followers Groups
When you pick whom to follow, consider not only if their pins are interesting but also if they have a large group of followers. When you follow such users, and especially if they decide to follow you back, their huge follower base is an undisputed advantage when they decide to repin something you have posted. With such power users one repin can bring crowds to your board!
9 Repin Interesting Stuff
Like any social network, interaction with other users is key on Pinterest. Because of this, it makes a lot of sense to like and comment on other people's pins. These give you more visibility, not to mention that in return you can get some repins, likes, and comments from other users. However, as with hashtags, you do need to have measure - i.e. don't repin, comment, or like every single pin you see on your screen, because this devaluates your contribution.
10 Use Videos, Charts, Infographics
Pinterest is not only about static stuff, there is a video section as well. Of course, this is not YouTube but if you can create a cool video about your business, don't be shy to post it. Also, in addition to images, you can use various charts and infographics - these are especially popular among users.
Pinterest is an interesting place and you will hardly have to force yourself to use it. Of course, its main advantage for you is the publicity you get. You might not be able to make a sale on Pinterest but the exposure and the traffic to your site are valuable prerequisites for making more sales, so if your products are suitable for the Pinterest format and audience, don't hesitate but promote them there
Monday, 3 September 2012
Get Traffic for Free
Getting traffic is one of the most important tasks for any web master. What is more, you can't get traffic once and then just reap the benefits. Getting traffic is an ongoing task and you must be constantly doing it, if you want to get traffic and keep it. Here are some of the ways to get traffic for free:
1Optimize your site for search engines.
Search engines have always been a major way to get traffic for free. That is why you need to do your homework and optimize your site so that it ranks well for the keywords you target. SEO is still the most powerful way to get traffic for free and you really need to invest some time and efforts in the optimization of your site. SEO is not that difficult and if you want to get familiar with it in a nutshell, check our SEO Tutorial. If you are too busy for that, you can start with the 15 Minute SEO article.
2Frequently update the contents of your site. .
If you expected some shocking secrets revealed, you might be a bit disappointed. One of the first steps in getting traffic for free is trivial but vital – get great content and frequently update it. In terms of SEO, content is king. If your content is good and frequently updated you will not only build a loyal audience of recurring visitors, who will often come to see what is new, but search engines will also love your site.
3Take advantage of social bookmarking sites.
Social bookmarking sites (especially the most popular among them) are another powerful way to get traffic for free. If you want to learn how to do it, check the How to get Traffic from Social Bookmarking sites article, where we have explained what to do if you want to get free traffic from sites such as Digg, Delicious, etc.
4Use your Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Social networks are also a way to get traffic for free. If you are popular on networks, such as Twitter or Facebook, the traffic you get from there can easily surpass the traffic from Google and the other search engines. It is true that building a large network of targeted followers on Twitter and supporters on Facebook takes a lot of time and effort but generally the result is worth.
5Get links with other sites in your niche.
Another way to get traffic for free is from other sites in your niche. Getting links with other sites in your niche is also good for SEO, especially if you manage to get links without the famous nofollow attribute. But even if the links are nofollow (i.e. they are useless for SEO), they still help to get traffic to your site. If you manage to put your link in a visible place on a site with high volumes of traffic, you can get thousands of hits from this link alone. If you need list of sites within your niche where you could get backlinks from, check the Backlink Builder tool. However, be careful if you exchange links because linking to bad neighbors can do you a lot of harm.
6 Use any chance to promote your site for free.
Free promotion is always welcome, so don't neglect it. There are many ways to promote your site for free and some of the most popular ones include free classified ads, submissions to directories, inclusion in various listings, etc. It is true that not all free ways to promote your site work well but if you select the right places to promote your site for free, this can also result in tons of traffic.
7Create a free product or service.
Content drives most traffic when you offer something useful. There are many types of useful content you can create and they largely depend on the niche of your site. You can have articles with tons of advice, or short tips but one of the most powerful ways to get traffic is to create a free product or service. When this product or service gets popular and people start visiting your site, chances are that they will visit the other sections of the site as well.
8Use viral content.
Free products and services are great for getting free traffic to your site and one of the best varieties in this aspect is viral content. Viral content is called so because it distributes like a virus – i.e. when users like your content, they send it to their friends, post it on various sites, and promote it for free in many different ways. Viral content distributes on its own and your only task is to create it and submit it to a couple of popular sites. After that users pick it and distribute it for you. Viral content can be a hot video or a presentation but it can also be a good old article or an image.
9Use offline promotion.
Offline promotion is frequently forgotten but it is also a way to get traffic for free. Yes, computers are everywhere and many people spend more time online than offline but still life hasn't moved completely on the Web. Offline promotion is also very powerful and if you know how to use it, this can also bring you many visitors. Some of the traditional offline ways to promote your site include printing its URL on your company's business cards and souvenirs or sticking it on your company vehicles. You can also start selling T-shirts and other merchandise with your logo and this way make your brand more popular.
10Include your URL in your signature.
URLs in forum signatures are also a way to get traffic for free. There are forums, which get millions of visitors a day and if you are a popular user on such a forum, you can use this to get traffic to your site. When you post on forums and people like your posts, they tend to click the link to your site on your signature to learn more about you. In rare cases you might be able to post a deep link (i.e. a link to an internal page of the site) rather than a link to your homepage and this is also a way to focus attention to a particular page. Unfortunately, deep links are rarely allowed.
Getting traffic for free is a vast topic and it is not possible to list all the ways to do it. However, if you know the most important ways – i.e. the ways we discussed in this article and you apply them properly, it is guaranteed that you will be able to get lots of traffic for free.
1Optimize your site for search engines.
Search engines have always been a major way to get traffic for free. That is why you need to do your homework and optimize your site so that it ranks well for the keywords you target. SEO is still the most powerful way to get traffic for free and you really need to invest some time and efforts in the optimization of your site. SEO is not that difficult and if you want to get familiar with it in a nutshell, check our SEO Tutorial. If you are too busy for that, you can start with the 15 Minute SEO article.
2Frequently update the contents of your site. .
If you expected some shocking secrets revealed, you might be a bit disappointed. One of the first steps in getting traffic for free is trivial but vital – get great content and frequently update it. In terms of SEO, content is king. If your content is good and frequently updated you will not only build a loyal audience of recurring visitors, who will often come to see what is new, but search engines will also love your site.
3Take advantage of social bookmarking sites.
Social bookmarking sites (especially the most popular among them) are another powerful way to get traffic for free. If you want to learn how to do it, check the How to get Traffic from Social Bookmarking sites article, where we have explained what to do if you want to get free traffic from sites such as Digg, Delicious, etc.
4Use your Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Social networks are also a way to get traffic for free. If you are popular on networks, such as Twitter or Facebook, the traffic you get from there can easily surpass the traffic from Google and the other search engines. It is true that building a large network of targeted followers on Twitter and supporters on Facebook takes a lot of time and effort but generally the result is worth.
5Get links with other sites in your niche.
Another way to get traffic for free is from other sites in your niche. Getting links with other sites in your niche is also good for SEO, especially if you manage to get links without the famous nofollow attribute. But even if the links are nofollow (i.e. they are useless for SEO), they still help to get traffic to your site. If you manage to put your link in a visible place on a site with high volumes of traffic, you can get thousands of hits from this link alone. If you need list of sites within your niche where you could get backlinks from, check the Backlink Builder tool. However, be careful if you exchange links because linking to bad neighbors can do you a lot of harm.
6 Use any chance to promote your site for free.
Free promotion is always welcome, so don't neglect it. There are many ways to promote your site for free and some of the most popular ones include free classified ads, submissions to directories, inclusion in various listings, etc. It is true that not all free ways to promote your site work well but if you select the right places to promote your site for free, this can also result in tons of traffic.
7Create a free product or service.
Content drives most traffic when you offer something useful. There are many types of useful content you can create and they largely depend on the niche of your site. You can have articles with tons of advice, or short tips but one of the most powerful ways to get traffic is to create a free product or service. When this product or service gets popular and people start visiting your site, chances are that they will visit the other sections of the site as well.
8Use viral content.
Free products and services are great for getting free traffic to your site and one of the best varieties in this aspect is viral content. Viral content is called so because it distributes like a virus – i.e. when users like your content, they send it to their friends, post it on various sites, and promote it for free in many different ways. Viral content distributes on its own and your only task is to create it and submit it to a couple of popular sites. After that users pick it and distribute it for you. Viral content can be a hot video or a presentation but it can also be a good old article or an image.
9Use offline promotion.
Offline promotion is frequently forgotten but it is also a way to get traffic for free. Yes, computers are everywhere and many people spend more time online than offline but still life hasn't moved completely on the Web. Offline promotion is also very powerful and if you know how to use it, this can also bring you many visitors. Some of the traditional offline ways to promote your site include printing its URL on your company's business cards and souvenirs or sticking it on your company vehicles. You can also start selling T-shirts and other merchandise with your logo and this way make your brand more popular.
10Include your URL in your signature.
URLs in forum signatures are also a way to get traffic for free. There are forums, which get millions of visitors a day and if you are a popular user on such a forum, you can use this to get traffic to your site. When you post on forums and people like your posts, they tend to click the link to your site on your signature to learn more about you. In rare cases you might be able to post a deep link (i.e. a link to an internal page of the site) rather than a link to your homepage and this is also a way to focus attention to a particular page. Unfortunately, deep links are rarely allowed.
Getting traffic for free is a vast topic and it is not possible to list all the ways to do it. However, if you know the most important ways – i.e. the ways we discussed in this article and you apply them properly, it is guaranteed that you will be able to get lots of traffic for free.
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NO NEED TO SIGNUP ?
Better Than 1:1 Hit Exchange
Promote Unlimited Sites
Manual 20 second surfing
48 Hour unique hits
5 level reward program
Geo Targeting of your ads
38 Languages Supported
Contests
Access to the best banner exchange on the internet
Promote Unlimited Banners
Free Listing in the TrafficG directory
Your own special promotions page
100% Free to Join
100% Free to Use
10 Free Visitor Credits
1000 Free Banner Impressions
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